LEADER: New Year's innovations

Having thrown myself full pelt at Christmas and New Year’s celebrations over the last couple of weeks, I have decided to take a holiday from the highs and lows of weekend inebriation.

As a result, I am now seven days in to Dry January and have thus far been left with a lot more time on my hands.

It’s for that reason that I not only find myself typing this, the first Toy Inventors Bulletin Leader column of 2015, on a crisp Wednesday evening while sipping at a deep glass of claret Ribena, but also pondering such outlandish thoughts as whether I would ever have what it takes to join the toy inventor elite.

Yes, somewhere between my 15th game of ‘save Elsa from the cat bowl’ played with an obsessive two year old niece, and the 30th rendition of my go-to Charades move (Jaws) this past Christmas, I decided it was high time I got to dreaming up the next best-selling toy.

I didn’t get too far. In fact, I was hopeless, at best. But my intentions, I endeavour, were founded in belief.

After all, this is an exciting year to embark on inventing; a year in which innovation is practically falling out of our ears and landing in our eyes, and technology itself is beginning to overtake science fiction. (Or at least catch-up with Back to the Future II)

CES 2015 – the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Tradeshow – for example, is now under way, and already we have heard stories of trainers with in-built Simon memory games, plans to bring 3D printing into the homes of the consumer and even gadgets that will allow fans to build LEGO just by moving their eyes.

So, you can understand why I thought my time was now, because with such technology at our fingertips, 2015 is already shaping up to be a very fruitful year for toy invention. All it needs are the innovators to cook something up.

And that is where I shall now modestly resign my own talents, and wait for you guys – the experts - to step in. Because, to quote Tech 4 Kids’ Brad Pedersen for one moment: “With the tools that are available today, it’s never been easier for an inventor to come up with an idea and transmute it into something that is presentable.”

Yes, the New Year brings new beginnings and with it new avenues of innovation to explore, and we here at ToyNews very much look forward to seeing, reading and writing all about the products that you guys believe will define 2015.

Becasue, invariably, they will be centuries ahead of my efforts at an all-singing, all-dancing, ice-blasting, life-sized Elsa robot.

Now, roll on February 1st, because I can't stomach the below picture for much longer without a stiff drink.